A Titan Takes Care of His Own
by JuliaBeth
Summary: Back at T.C. Williams as a teacher, Petey witnesses a riot and saves three Titans.


A Titan Always Takes Care of His Own  
  
Pete, aka Petey, Jones stood outside his classroom. He couldn't belive he was back at T.C. Williams. It didn't seem like all that long ago he had roamed these halls with Sunshine, Rev, Louie, Gerry, Julius and the other guys from the team. This time though, he was a teacher, and 23, instead of 16.  
  
As he watched the students going from class to class, he could almost see the guys, talking and laughing as they passed in the hall. He was brought out his memories by a familiar blonde head passing in the hall.  
  
He smiled. Sheryl Yoast, he could hardly believe she was old enough to be in high school.  
  
"Hey, Coach!" He yelled.  
  
She looked back. "Petey?" She pushed her way back to him.  
  
"Hey, girl." He hugged her, not caring if it was right for a teacher, esspecially a black one, to hug a student.  
  
"What are you doing here?" She asked.  
  
"Don't you know? I'm the history teacher."  
  
"Well then, Mr. Jones, I will see you in three hours, but right now I have to go to Home Ec." Her face showed that she didn't think much of that course. She rolled her eyes before heading off down the hall.  
  
He wondered if she was still as much of a football fanatic as she used to be.  
  
He didn't have time to wonder long. He had a hall to watch. T.C. Williams may have intergrated when he was in high school, but this was still Virginia and some racial tension still exsisted.  
  
Sheryl looked back at Petey one last time before opening her locker. Mr. Jones? Nah, he'd always be Petey to her. She threw her books in the locker and pulled out her schedule hoping, by some miracle, Home Ec. had disappeared. Nope. It was still there. Oh, well, at least Nikki was in the class. Maybe it wouldn't be so unbearable after all. She leaned back against the lockers, waiting for her friend to show up.  
  
Nikki was, as usual, flirting with some boy as she walked towards Sheryl. Meeting up with her bestest she said goodbye to the boy and looped her arm through Sheryl's. "Come on, the quicker we get out there, the sooner it'll be over."  
  
No one knew how it started. No one saw that first push or heard that one word, but soon the hallway erupted in a battle between the white boys, and the black. The fight was in front of the two girls. They quickly turned around, knowing how dangerous the situation was. Unfortunately the mayem was spreading down the hall and the two girls quickly found themselves somewhere they did not want to be. Caught in the middle of a race riot.  
  
With no where to go, and thier hearts filling with fear, each girl frantically looked around for some way out, both secretly hoping to see thier Dads, breaking up the fight and save them from the midst of it. Only they weren't there. It seemed that no teacher was there, or could stop the fight.  
  
Pete was pulling boys of both colors off each other, trying to break up the fight in what seemed to be a hopeless battle. He was about to give up when he saw something that made his heart jump with fear. Sheryl Yoast and Nikki Boone were caught in the middle. He had to get to them. Using skills he hadn't used since he was a Titan, he pushed and shoved and knocked boys down until he could reach them.  
  
Sheryl and Nikki both jumped when someone grabbed them, but he was already pulling them down the hall. The next thing they knew, someone pushed them in an empty room and shut the door. They looked around.  
  
It was a history classroom. Sheryl looked at the person standing outside the door. Petey had saved them.  
  
She stood there, staring at him, until Nikki grabbed her arm and pulled her to the floor behind the desk.  
  
"Get down!" Nikki hissed.  
  
The door opened again. Two more girls came into the room. Nikki and Sheryl both told them to get down. Then the door opened again. Nikki gasped as Karen was shoved into the room. She had forgotten about her.  
  
Karen saw her sister and ran to her, huddling down between Sheryl and Nikki.  
  
Then, as quickly as it had started, it seemed, the fight was over and the halls were quieting down.  
  
When it was clear, Petey opened the door and two girls left to find thier own siblings, but three stayed huddled behind the desk.  
  
Petey came over to them.  
  
"Hey, ya'll. It's okay. It's over now," he said. "Come on. Get up. It's safe." He held out his hand to them, but Karen was hysterical and both girls were trying to soothe her, even though they both felt like screaming themselves.  
  
He knelt beside them. "Hey, it's all right, Karen. Ole' Petey's gonna take care of you. Ain't nobody gonna hurt you, or Nikki, or Coach."  
  
Coach Boone and Coach Yoast were out on the feild with the JV team when another player came running up to them with news of the riot. Both took off running, leaving thier class out on the field. When they reached the hall, the fight was already over. Most of the boys invovled being hauled away by school officials and police officers.  
  
The danger gone, Yoast headed to the Home Ec room, while Boone ran to Karen's classroom both praying that the girls hadn't been in the hall when it started.  
  
Not finding them there, they started up the hall to the cafeteria where the injured had been taken.  
  
"Coach!"  
  
Both men turned at the sound of Petey's voice.  
  
"They're in here," he montioned back in his room.  
  
The girls were up when Boone and Yoast came in and Sheryl ran to Yoast, while Nikki and Karen launched themsleves into Boone's arms.  
  
"Coach," Sheryl exclaimed. "Nikki and I were right up in the middle when it started and Petey pulled us out and put us in here, then he found Karen and put her in here too. He saved us from getting hurt."  
  
The two men looked at the young man who had once been their student.  
  
Petey shrugged, "Ya'll always said, the Titan's take care of their own, and they're as much a Titan as any of us were."  
  
The End. 


End file.
